FTA: Smokies spokeswoman Dana Soehn said the difficult decision to put the elk to death was made after efforts to keep it away from people failed. She said visitors have been feeding some of the elks, causing the wild animals to lose their fear of humans.

Same goes for bears. Don't f*cking feed them because they often end up becoming nuisance animals that have to be relocated. If that fails the animals are often killed, all because some people can't get it through their thick skulls not to feed the wildlife.

Bendal:Years ago we vacationed in a state park at Panama City Beach, FL. That evening a family of raccoons showed up just on the edge of the trees. My dad thought it would be a neat photo to have him feeding them by hand. Well, we've got photos of the entire family climbing him like a tree to get to the food when he didn't feed them fast enough. Fortunately my dad didn't get chomped on by impatient raccoons, but he didn't try that again.

Another night while we were there a young deer wandered into our area. My dad began feeding it leaves from some cabbage, and the deer followed him into our vacation trailer for the food. I was convinced the deer would freak out and destroy the interior, but it calmly stood there and ate cabbage, then walked to the door and jumped out. We got some photos of it too.

George Babbitt:On further review, I take back the charge of passivity I put on the photog, and replace it with a mixed message charge that he was sending to the elk. One where he stayed on the ground in a submissive position and then also kept on putting his head down which was seen as a challenge to the elk. This whole story sucjs, I hope some bellies at least got fed off this creature as the result of the dumb photog's actions.

This was the first time I'd seen it, after hearing other people talking about it last week.

The photographer was being irresponsible. He was obviously playing for the sense of playing, and had several other options besides the dangerous "hunker down."

Yeah; they had to. It's sad when they do it; but, you can't have that elk getting handouts from people. It causes dangerous situations.

Hell, last deer season, fish and wildlife had to put down a fawn that a farmer saved after its mom died. If I remember right, the farmer even made a prosthetic leg for the fawn. And the farmer wasn't planing to release the fawn, either.